Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Our Shanty Neighbors: Depanneur FLQ

1 comment:

Here's a translation courtesy of wikipedia, with my own interpretation of the reader's charming "Lac du Médecine" accent. (Or see the English translation of the FLQ manifesto at wikipedia: http://english.republiquelibre.org/Manifesto-flq.html )

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Ze Front de Libération du Québec, zey want total independence for Quebeckers; eet wants to see zem united in a free society, a society purgéd for good of its gang of rapacious sharks, ze big bosses who dish out patronage and zeir henchmen, who have turnéd Quebec into a private preserve of cheap labour and unscrupulous exploitation.

Ze money powers of ze status quo, ze majority of ze traditional tutors of our people, have obtainéd from ze voters ze reaction zey hoped for, a step backwards rather zan ze changes we have workéd for as never before, ze changes we will continue to work for. -- René Lévesque, April 29, mille-neuf-cents-soixante-dix [1970].

Once, we believéd eet worthwhile to channel our energy and our impatience, in ze apt words of René Lévesque, into ze Parti Québécois, but ze Liberal victory shows zat what eez called democracy in Quebec has always been, and still ees, nothing but ze "democracy" of ze rich. In zis sense ze victory of ze Liberal party eez in fact nothing but ze victory of ze Simard-Cotroni election-fixers. Consequently, we wash our hands of ze British parliamentary system; ze Front de Libération du Québec will never let itself be distracted by ze electoral crumbs zat ze Anglo-Saxon capitalists toss into ze Quebec barnyard every four years. Many Quebeckers have realized ze truth and are ready to take action. In ze coming year Bourassa eez going to get what's coming to heem: 100,000 revolutionary workers, arméd and organizéd!

Yes, zere are reasons for ze Liberal victory. Yes, zere are reasons for poverty, unemployment, slums, for ze fact zat you, Mr. Bergeron of Visitation Street, and you too, Mr. Legendre of Ville de Laval, who make dix-milles francs [F10,000] a year, do not feel free in our country, Quebec.

Yes, zere are reasons - ze guys who work for Lord know zem, and so do ze fishermen of Gaspesia, ze workers on ze North Shore; ze miners who work for Iron Ore, for Québec Cartier Mining, for Noranda know zese reasons too. Ze honest workingmen at Cabano 10, ze guys zey tried to screw still one more time, zey know lots of reasons.

Yes, zere are reasons why you, Mr. Tremblay of Panet Street and you, Mr. Cloutier who work in construction in St. Jérôme, can't afford Le Vaisseau d'Or wit' all ze jazzy music and ze sharp decor, like Drapeau ze aristocrat, ze guy who was so concernéd about slums zat he had coloured billboards stuck up in front of zem so zat ze rich tourists couldn't see us in our misery.

Yes, Madame Lemay of St. Hyacinthe, zere are reasons why you can't afford a little junket to Florida like ze rotten judges and members of Parliament who travel on our money. Ze good workers at Vickers and at Davie Shipbuilding, ze ones who were given no reason for being thrown out, know zese reasons; so do ze guys at Murdochville zat were smashéd only because zey wanted to form a union, and whom ze rotten judges forcéd to pay over two million dollars because zey had wanted to exercise zis elementary right. Ze guys of Murdochville are familiar wit' zis justice; zey know lots of reasons. Yes, zer are reasons why you, Mr. Lachance of St. Marguerite Street, go drowning your despair, your bitterness, and your rage in Molson's horse piss. And you, ze Lachance boy, wit' your marijuana cigarettes...

Yes, zere are reasons why you, ze welfare cases, are kept from generation to generation on public assistance. There are lots of reasons, ze workers for Domtar at Windsor and East Angus know zem; ze workers for Squibb Ayers, for ze Quebec Liquor Commission and for Seven-up and for Victoria Precision, and ze blue collar workers of Laval and of Montreal and ze guys at Lapalme know lots of reasons.

Ze workers at Dupont of Canada know some reasons too, even if zey will soon be able to express zem only in English (thus assimilated, zey will swell ze number of New Quebeckers, ze immigrants who are ze darlings of Bill soixante-trois).

Zese reasons ought to have been understood by ze policemen of Montreal, ze system's muscle; zey ought to have realizéd zat we live in a terrorized society, because without zeir force and zeir violence, everything fell apart on October sept.

We've had enough of a Canadian federalism which penalizes ze dairy farmers of Quebec to satisfy ze requirements of ze Anglo-Saxons of ze Commonwealth of Nations; which keeps ze honest taxi drivers of Montreal in a state of semi-slavery by shamefully protecting ze exclusive monopoly of ze nauseating Murray Hill, and its owner - ze murderer Charles Hershorn and hees son Paul who, ze night of October sept, repeatedly tore a .vingt-deux rifle out of ze hands of hees employees to fire on ze taxi drivers and zereby mortally wounded Corporal Dumas, killéd as a demonstrator. Canadian federalism pursues a reckless import policy, zereby throwing out of work ze people who earn low wages in ze textile and shoe industries, ze most downtrodden people in Quebec, and all to line ze pockets of a handful of filthy "money-makers" in Cadillacs. We are fed up wit' a federalism which classes ze Quebec nation among ze ethnic minorities of Canada.

We, and more and more Quebeckers too, have had eet wit' a government of "pussy-footers" who perform a hundred and one tricks to charm ze American millionaires, begging zem to come and invest in Quebec, ze "Belle Province", where thousands of square miles of forests full of game and of lakes full of fish are ze exclusive property of zese all-powerful lords of ze twentieth century. We are sick of a government in ze hands of a hypocrite like Bourassa who depends on Brinks armouréd trucks, an authentic symbol of ze foreign occupation of Quebec, to keep ze poor Quebec "natives" fearful of zat poverty and unemployment to which we are so accustomed.

We are fed up wit' ze taxes we pay zat Ottawa's agent in Quebec would give to ze English-speaking bosses as an "incentive" for zem to speak French, to negotiate in French. Repeat after me: "Cheap labour eez 'main d'oeuvre à bon marché' in French."

We have had enough of promises of work and of prosperity, when in fact we will always be ze diligent servants and bootlickers of ze big shots, as long as zere eez a Westmount, a Town of Mount Royal, a Hampstead, an Outremont, all zese veritable fortresses of ze high finance of St. James Street and Wall Street; we will be slaves until Quebeckers, all of us, have uséd every means, including dynamite and guns, to drive out zese big bosses of ze economy and of politics, who will stoop to any action however low eet may be, ze better to screw us.

We are terrorizéd by ze Roman Capitalist Church, though eet seems less and less so today (who owns ze square where ze Stock Exchange was built?); terrorizédby ze payments owing to Household Finance, by ze advertising of ze grand masters of consumption, Eaton's, Simpson's, Morgan's, Steinberg's, General Motors - terrorizéd by zose exclusive clubs of science and culture, ze universities, and by zeir boss-directors Gaudry and Dorais, and by ze vice-boss Robert Shaw.

Zere are more and more of us who know and suffer under zis terrorist society, and ze day eez coming when all ze Westmounts of Quebec will disappear from ze map.

Workers in industry, in mines and in ze forests! Workers in ze service industries, teachers, students and unemployéd! Take what belongs to you, your jobs, your determination and your freedom. And you, ze workers at General Electric, you make your factories run; you are ze only ones able to produce; without you, General Electric eez nothing!

Workers of Quebec, begin from zis day forward to take back what eez yours; take yourselves what belongs to you. Only you know your factories, your machines, your hotels, your universities, your unions; do not wait for some organization to produce a miracle.

Make your revolution yourselves in your neighbourhoods, in your places of work. If you don't do eet yourselves, other usurpers, technocrats or someone else, will replace ze handful of cigar-smokers we know today and everything will have to be done all over again. Only you are capable of building a free society.

We must struggle not individually but together, till victory eez obtainéd, wit' every means at our disposal, like ze Patriots of mille-huit-cents-trente-sept à mille-huit-cents-trente-huit (zose whom Our Holy Mother Church hastenéd to excommunicate, ze better to sell out to British interests).

In ze four corners of Quebec, may zose who have been disdainfully calléd lousy Frenchmen and alcoholics begin a vigorous battle against zose who have muzzled liberty and justice; may zey put out of commission all ze professional holdup artists and swindlers: bankers, businessmen, judges and corrupt political wheeler-dealers....

We are Quebec workers and we are preparéd to go all ze way. With ze help of ze entire population, we want to replace zis society of slaves by a free society, operating by itself and for itself, a society open on ze world. Our struggle can only be victorious. A people zat has awakened cannot long be kept in misery and contempt.